In a victory for Donald Trump and his administration’s crackdown on immigration, a Wisconsin judge was found guilty Thursday of helping a migrant avoid a planned immigration arrest outside her courtroom, a U.S. Justice Department official said.
Hannah Dugan, 66 — a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge-elect — was convicted of obstructing federal proceedings and acquitted of a lesser charge of harboring a person from arrest, according to a Reuters report.
The prosecution stemmed from a Justice Department directive ordering prosecutors to prosecute cases of alleged obstruction of ICE enforcement by local activists and officials resisting Trump’s push for mass deportations.
What are the charges against Dugan?
Prosecutors alleged that Dugan intended to help a migrant from Mexico, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, evade immigration arrest when he was scheduled to appear before her on domestic violence charges. They said she deflected federal agents and escorted the man and his attorney through a private exit out of her courtroom.
“She was focused on orchestrating Flores-Ruiz’s escape,” prosecutor Keith Alexander said in court. “She knew what she was doing. She did it anyway.”
What did Dugan’s lawyers say?
Dugan’s attorneys argued that she followed management personnel policy to alert a supervisor of ICE’s presence at the courthouse. They claimed the incident occurred during a time of confusion and uncertainty following two previous ICE arrests at the courthouse.
“All she did was send him down the hall with his attorney,” Dugan’s attorney, Steven Biskupic, told the jury during the trial.
Dugan has pleaded not guilty, according to Reuters.
She was first elected as a regional judge in 2016 and previously served as head of the local branch of Catholic Charities, which, among other things, provides refugee resettlement programs.
Prosecutors say Dugan diverted ICE agents
Plainclothes agents from ICE and other agencies planned to arrest Flores Ruiz in the hallway outside Dugan’s courtroom after his hearing.
Dugan angrily confronted the agents and directed them to the chief justice’s office after learning ICE was present, according to witness statements in the case. She then handled Flores-Ruiz’s case privately, directing the man and his attorney through a private “jury door,” prosecutors alleged.
Flores-Ruiz walked through a public hallway and was arrested outside the courthouse after a short chase.
